Page 87 of All Packed Up

“Instead, Griffith kissed me, said, ‘See you around,’ and stepped out in front of the cops to distract them. While he was being arrested, I snuck through the fence and got out,” he admitted, eyes fluttering shut in frustration. “That stupid idiot. We both could have gotten through that fence.” Probably.

Nic knew as well as Grif did that the fence would have made too much noise for them both to escape. Someone would have been caught. Griffith had just made sure it wasn’t Nic who ended up in cuffs.

“Nic,” Wendy gasped, staring at him. When had he come to a stop?

He started walking again. “While he was busy getting fucking arrested, I slipped out the fence and got away. Grif was sentenced to three years in prison for it. For me.”

“Nic… that is so. Utterly. Romantic,” Wendy breathed.

Nic snapped his head around to stare at her. “What?”

“He sacrificed himself for you,” Wendy mused with a shrug. “That’s pretty damned romantic.”

Nic couldn’t have found the romance even if he wanted to, because he was too wrapped up in his guilt.

“Anyway, all that to say that Griff and I went our own ways. It ended… rough.”

“Did you guys talk after he got out?”

Nic sighed and threw his arms up in the air. “That’s where I really fucked up. We had agreed, years earlier, that I would meet him at the gate when he was released. I drove there.”

Wendy knew where this was going. “Oh, Nic,” she whispered.

“Yeah. I sat there, and I stared at him for a while. He waited for me. But I just couldn’t make myself get out and go over there, you know?”

“Why not?” she asked quietly.

Nic was upset. It was in his scent, in the tension of his shoulders, the stiffness of his body. And Wendy wanted nothing more than to soothe away the worries of her beta.

Wait. Her beta?

Wendy’s heart did a little hop in her chest.

“Because…”

Nic was spilling his heart out to her, she could dissect her thoughts later.

“I had already fucked his life up so much. He lost three years behind bars because of me. How could I show up and expect him to carry on with me after that? That wasn’t fair to him. He deserved a chance to start over with a blank slate. Without me there to fuck it all up for him.”

Wendy’s heart hurt a little more with every word he said.

“Griffith meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”

“This is becoming a very complicated situation,” he murmured.

“Because he still means a lot to you,” Wendy guessed.

Nic didn’t respond, which was as much of an affirmation as she needed. She could see it in Griffith’s glances. Why would Nic not want the alpha back?

Even Wendy could admit he was handsome, and like, strong. His eyes were pretty too—

Getting off on the wrong track here, she reminded herself.

“I don’t own you, Nic,” she clarified. “You’re allowed to have feelings for other people. And as long and tangled as your past is with Griffith? I wouldn’t expect you to deny that if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t even know what I want.” Nic sighed.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you went to him for help, even after all these years. And it didn’t stop him from picking up the phone when you called,” Wendy pointed out. “Despite how much you fight it, you know there’s something there.”